Category: Herstory

The kingdom of women: the Tibetan tribe where a man is never the boss

Imagine a society without fathers; without marriage (or divorce); one in which nuclear families don’t exist. Grandmother sits at the head of the table; her sons and daughters live with her, along with the children of those daughters, following the maternal bloodline. Men are little more than studs, sperm donors who inseminate women but have, more often than not, little involvement in their children’s upbringing.

This progressive, feminist world – or anachronistic matriarchy, as skewed as any patriarchal society, depending on your viewpoint – exists in a lush valley in Yunnan, south-west China, in the far eastern foothills of the Himalayas. An ancient tribal community of Tibetan Buddhists called the Mosuo, they live in a surprisingly modern way: women are treated as equal, if not superior, to men; both have as many, or as few, sexual partners as they like, free from judgment; and extended families bring up the children and care for the elderly.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/01/the-kingdom-of-women-the-tibetan-tribe-where-a-man-is-never-the-boss?

Dystopian dreams: how feminist science fiction predicted the future

Margaret Atwood’s evergreen dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale is about to become a television drama. Published in 1985, it couldn’t feel more fresh or more timely, dealing as it does with reproductive rights, with the sudden accession to power of a theocracy in the United States, with the demonisation of imagined, pantomime villain “Islamic fanatics”.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/25/dystopian-dreams-how-feminist-science-fiction-predicted-the-future?

Wu Zetian – Ancient History Encyclopedia

Empress Wu Zetian (also known as Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor in the history of China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China’s history.

Although modern historians, both east and west, have revised the ancient depiction of Wu Zetian as a scheming usurper, that view of her reign still persists in much that is written about her. The woman who believed she was as capable as any man to lead the country continues to be vilified, even if writers now qualify their criticisms, but there is no arguing with the fact that, under Wu Zetian, China experienced an affluence and stability it had never known before. Her reforms and policies lay the foundation for the success of Xuanzong as emperor under whose reign China became the most prosperous country in the world.

Kathrine Switzer: 50 years ago women were not allowed to run the marathon

“If I quit, everybody’s going to believe women can’t do this.”

That’s the thought that latched itself into Kathrine Switzer’s head when a male official tried to push her off the course of the Boston Marathon in 1967

Perhaps the most significant of Switzer’s achievements was her role in having the women’s marathon added to the Olympics in 1984 — almost 90 years after the men’s event.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-25/kathrine-switzer-50-years-ago-women-not-allowed-to-run-marathon/8287576

First International Women’s Day: the history of a worldwide movement.

On March 8, 1917 hundreds of thousands of men and women chose IWD to flood the streets of Petrograd, Russia, and demand an end to food rationing, the end of World War I and the end of the Tsarist regime. After eight days of pressure created by this female-led ‘bread and peace’ movement, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated allowing for a provisional government that granted women the right to vote. One hundred years later, this is still considered one of the most significant milestones of IWD history.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/first-international-womens-day/?

'Normal' in our society means male – women are written out of the story

Congratulating Andy Murray on his second tennis Olympic gold medal, Inverdale told him: “You’re the first person ever to win two Olympic tennis gold medals,” leaving Murray to point out: “Venus and Serena [Williams] have won about four each.”
Leaving women out of the story isn’t a simple slip up. It is a consequence of a world that tells us they just aren’t quite as important. That their achievements don’t really count. It means that even in 2016, some of us do still need reminding that women are people, too.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/aug/17/normal-society-means-male-andy-murray-venus-serena-williams?